Make a wish...

I recently made some 'wish' tags for a friend's baby shower.  The shower was full of gorgeous details that the girls had lovingly put together.  I thought it was such a cute idea to leave a wish for the family.  They were then placed in a glass ginger jar for Beth to take home.  How fun!

Rene's Baby Shower

Back in Columbus, Meg hosted a baby shower for Rene.  It was so much fun helping out.  Meg is the queen of breakfast.  She and her husband always talk about opening a B&B someday, and I can't wait to be one of their first guests.  What is more cool than just talking about opening one...Meg and Akim travel a lot, and they always try to stay at B&Bs, with the purpose of checking them out, learning about them, etc.  I love that.  Meg is always up for trying new recipes, she is an expert meal planner, she has a great sense of style, and puts on a good bash. 

Being that it was a small group of mostly local girls, I wanted to make a fun invitation that I may not have made if they had to be shipped.  So, Meg and I put together these diaper invitations and then packaged them in lime green takeout containers.

I printed the invitation details onto iron on transfer paper, and then we pressed them onto cloth diapers.  (This didn't go as smoothly as we had planned if I remember correctly...maybe we needed better transfer paper??).  It took us a while to find the diaper pins, but we were finally able to locate yellow ones.  Phew! 

 

We then folded them up with the invitation facing up and placed them into takeout containers.

I whipped up some name tags, and we tied them on with cute animal ribbon that we found to match our containers. 

Meg set a beautiful table. I remember asking about where to get flowers, and she was able to pick up these assorted roses for a steal, and I really felt like they pulled together her lime theme along with the bright fruit she served (notice the fruit was served in the martini glasses...very cute!) and her beautiful dining room.

For favors, we found little herb pots at Target in the $1 section.  Meg planted and tended to them before the shower, and I made name tags that I attached to lollipop sticks that we simply stuck in the pots.

The sweet treats...I made some of Paula Deen's sour cream caramel cakes and ordered the cute Petit Fours (I wish I had the patience to attempt a dessert like that!)

Some yummy Petit Fours in honor of Bobby!  From Columbus Corner Bakery

Meg was a wonderful hostess and the food was out of this world!  What a lovely day.

Charming Details of the Baby Shower

We had the most lovely long weekend out on Cape Cod. Hallie was able to secure the most beautiful house for us to stay in that had views of the water from all around. It was so great to get my "fix" of such wonderful friends, their husbands, and new babies too! I was sad to see the weekend end, but hopefully we can make it a recurring event :) Sean and I can't thank everyone enough for all the travel that was done to get here and all the effort that was put in to make it such a relaxing and fun time.

When I entered the house on Sunday for the shower, I blown away by all the beautiful decor and detail. It is amazing how Hallie, Sommer and Brenda were able to plan all of the details from hundreds of miles apart, and have it all come together so seamlessly and beautifully. Everything was gorgeous. I wanted to share some of the beautiful details. I was extremely humbled by all the thought and effort that was put into the day.

I wanted to share some of the precious details...if only my photos could capture the full beauty!

The beautiful table that I saw when I entered the door...notice the fabric runners, the unique bottles for placecards, the breathtaking roses, and look at those pinwheels - amazing!!


Closer view of the pinwheels that Brenda figured out how to make...

Look at these adorable placecards! Brenda found the unique bottles, Sommer made the placecards, and Brenda also put a lovely quote inside each bottle which we all read to each other, and she also made us necklaces out of a New Zealand shell, Paua...each necklace is draped on the bottle!
look at the lovely fabric banner, balloons and yummy spread!!


I love how Sidekick has been incorporated into our showers - so fun. I feel like we really need to name him Sidekick now :) Notice the pretty seashells that they scattered about.
I just adore these - I got to bring them all home and I am currently trying to find the perfect spot in the nursery - I know these will be some serious entertainment for Sidekick, and they just look so cool in the meantime!
Sommer made these pretty votives...I just adored their color scheme - great work, ladies!

Some sparkling cider with raspberries - YUM! It may not be the same as our French Martinis or Champagne cocktails, but it was just as beautiful, and really tasted great :)
The woman who lent us her home also prepared a gourmet feast for us at the shower - it was all SO tasty!
Hallie and I have loved fabric banners for a long time, so it was so much fun to see this when I walked in...
the gorgeous lemon cake - I heart the swiss dots, and the shells that the girls added to the top made it look so perfect!!
the spread....YUM. You can believe I went back for seconds!
Balloons all around :)

What a lucky lady I am to be surrounded by this amazing group of women. Thank you all for the most beautiful day!

Shower details

Hallie's shower weekend was such a blast. Being that it was at Phila's, I should have known there was not a thing to worry about! Phila was a wonderful hostess as always, and I would definitely recommend her place to anyone who is looking for a relaxing getaway in the Nashville area (Hachland Hall Vineyard).

The decorations, placecard/favors, guest book, and art activity all went very well. It was a wonderful group of friends and family that attended. The meal was delicious, presents went smoothly, and Brenda's idea to have guests paint on canvases to make a mural for the nursery was a huge hit...it probably helped that Hallie has a lot of creative friends.

There weren't many decorations, but we had fun with what we did do. If you are interested in details...here you go...

I made some pom poms after learning how on here. I would absolutely use these for a party again...they were so much fun! I had a little trouble separating them/getting them to look like perfect spheres, so I will have to try to figure out how to fix that next time. I folded the tissue and put the wire around the middle ahead of time, and the night before the shower, several of us poofed them. I wasn't sure if they would retain their shape well for Saturday, but they did.


After we poofed the pom poms on Friday night...


Voila! We hung them with fishing line and clear thumb tacks...and we didn't really even need any decorations with a beautiful backdrop like Phila has outside her windows!

Brenda had a great idea to use rubber ducks as a placecard/favor. I don't know HOW many conversations we had about rubber ducks and how to incorporate names, etc., but we knew it would be fun if they could be floating in water, and we had to have everyone's name on them. Brenda found some bowls that worked great, and I made some life preservers out of sheets of foam I purchased at a craft store. We weren't sure how it would all come together, but we were very pleased with the outcome.




For the guest book, we did the old photo guest book idea. I got a plain small binder (the size of a half page), I cut pages of cardstock for the inside, and we took Polaroids of Hallie with each guest, and had them write a message to her. Hallie's niece helped orchestrate all that getting done which was a huge help!

We served mimosas when guests arrived, and Brenda had bought these gorgeous cupcakes (more like "works of art", I should say!) and we ended up saving those for dessert that evening because Phila's lunch was so filling!



All in all, it was a beautiful day with new friends and old!!

Green Baby Shower

I was able to attend my dear friend, Krissy's "green" baby shower last week up at West Point. It was so much fun to see everyone's creativity with gifts, hostessing, etc.

Here were some of the ideas...

--The hostess used plates that she had left over from other showers she had given or you can use your everyday plates instead of paper
--As gifts for the games, the hostess gave cute re-usable totes with a bottle of earth friendly house cleaner
--Pass on a baby item from your child that is still in good condition i.e. high chair, activity mat
--Put gift in a cute reusable bag
--Use newspaper as tissue paper
--Give organic clothes
--Give BPA free products
--Re-use old cards you have around the house and re-purpose for baby shower (one girl even found an old card from her grandma when she was pregnant, and she crossed out the message, and wrote Krissy a new message!)

After learning from Mark and Krissy's great example of living a very "green" life, and after attending the shower, Sean and I are finding ourselves even more motivated to recycle more, and figure out other ways to be better stewards to our fragile planet.

Baby Showers!

I have been working on invitations for Hallie's baby shower in June which has been so fun! I am excited to post some pics once they have been sent/received. As I have been working on them, it keeps reminding me of Sommer's shower back in November at our house in Columbus. You know those days that you just have such a great time? We had this amazing group of girls down there, and I miss them all so much. We had such a great time laughing, chatting, and being excited for Sommer that we spent a good portion of the day together.

I had fun obsessing over the details for the day! I am so happy to have Hallie's shower to look forward to!!


Invitation idea copied from my personal favorite blogger - Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day!

Good ol' lemonheads...don't these bring you back to childhood?



The top of the box has the guest's name, and the bottom of the box had a quote about motherhood...

I love that the shower was a team effort...I was so lucky to have such great cooks/bakers as friends...

Favors...texas cornbread mix with a mini-whisk...

Of course we had to have champagne cocktails, and Sommer had been craving root beer...

Cupcake pops from another favorite blog, Bakerella!


The most creative and funny gift of the day, by Hallie...Sommer was having an issue with stinky smells, and so Hallie made she and Tim some nose plugs for the bad dirty diapers...love the creativity!

I love you girls and miss you so much...why can't we still be on Slade? :)